The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-03-12
Correspondence Baltimore County Unios.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
MEDIEVAL SCIENCE.

MEDIEVAL SCIENCE.
In their search for the philosophers stone, the
old alchemists left untried no mixture of familiar
of unfamiliar Ingredients. An ancient work, en-
titled "The Gold Makers Guide" furnished this
promising formula "Take of the gall of a black
tomcat, killed when the night approached, one
part; of the brains of night owl, taken from out
its head whom the morning dawneth, five parts !;
mix in the hoof of an ass when the tide turneth !;
leave it till it doth breed maggots place it on
thy breast-bone when the moon shineth bright
and-thou wilt see sight which the eye of mortal
man ne'er beheld afore."
LANCET PROSPECTS.
That surgery has reached the stage where no
further advance need be expected was recently
expressed as the opinion of DIR. Erichsen, dis
tinguished British surgeon. On the other hand,
Sir W. Stokes, President of the College of Sur
geons in Ireland, anticipates great future de-
velopment of antiseptic surgery, declares brain
surgery to be yet in its infancy, and believes it
quite probable that in time diseased lungs may
be found amenable to surgical treatment.
INFLUENCE OF FOOD SUPPLY.
A veritable plague of Brazil, according to Won
Ihering results from the singular increase of bur-
rowing mice of the genus Hesperomys, which, or
dinarily very rare, become alarmingly abundant
at irregular periods coinciding with Towering
seasons of the herbaceous plant which furnishes
their chief food. This plant, Crescinma, reaches
maturity and flowers only at regular intervals
varying from six to thirty years. In May and
June, 1876, the mice appeared in prodigious num-
Il T IN foxu6 do thoxyf toll
demolished the fields of corn, potatoes, rye and
barley, invaded houses and destroyed everything
not too hard for their teeth and ate fat swine,
and removed the wooden shoes from the cows
At the natural rate of increase the progeny of a
pair of the mice would reach $4,000 individuals
in season, and if their multiplication was favored
by an.abundant seeding Of their favorite plant
every year they would soon drive all other living
creatures from the country.
10 eaisaa CONSCIOUS PARALYsls. l,.- ~ IL .
An account of a curious case painfully suggestive
of narrow escape from the horrors of living and
conscious burial, comes from Jafna, Ceylon. The
taxidermist of the Victoria Museum, apparently
dead from the bite of supposed venomless cobra,
continued perfectly conscious while artificial res
piration was practised his body for nine hours.
The poison seemed to have paralyzed the nerves
of motion, for he could see hear and feel, though
incapable of giving the slightest sign of life. His
faculties were restored temporarily, but he died in
four days. sa
"A FIREPRooF PLANT. Z =
On the authority of Mr.--W- T. T. Dyer, an
English botanist,s a remarkable tree of South
America, o Rhopoia growing to height of about
twenty feet is said to be absolutely indestructble
by fire, thriving in districts which are burned
twice year with the humiliation of every other
form of vegetable life.
Ef ELECTRIC PHOTOGRAPHS. rq-f oFF1
Not long since were recorded some interesting
experiments in which Mons Oh. Zenger secured
photographs in the darkness of moonless night
through the imperceptible phosphorescence Of GER
tain objects which had been brightly illuminated
during the day. Mons. D. Tomassi has now de-
scribed some even more remarkable effects under
the euphonious name of Autobiography" By an
exposure of few minutes duration, he has i'm :
pressed upon a photographers sensitive plate an
image of an object through which silent dis
charge of electricity was passing this result being
obtained even when care was taken to ensure per-
feet darkness and with current of too low ten
sion to give any sign of light The theory of the
experimenteris that body under electric influence
emits aeIectric rays" analogous to the dark rays
of the spectrum. Eikiig = sffit
THE WORLDS GREAT LENSES. ~. p
Astronomers have witnessed during the past
decade, as Prof. Young remarks, greater advance
in optical power than ever before in like period.
Among the great refracting telescopes constructed
L
lottesvlle and the 90 inch at Princeton, for which
the lenses were made in America by Clark of
Cambridge. A 27-inch telescope for Vienna has
been made by Grub of Dublin, who is at work
on one of % inches for the Greenwich 0bserva-
tory. The 19-inch telescope at Strasburg has
been turned out by Merz of Munich. The Henry
Brothers of Paris have made go inch object glass,
not yet mounted, for the Nice Observatory; while
Clark has nearly finished the giant lens of all-36
inches in diameter-for the Lick Observatory
Up to 1881 the greatest refractor in the world was
that of the Naval Observatory at Washington,
with an object glass of 26 inches, and up toIS6O
there was none larger that the l5-inch Of Harvard
Observatory.
MISCELLANEOUS. sf-
An attempt to infuse new vigor into the degen-
Grating potato by crossing the cultivated varieties
with the wild plant has been for two or three sea-
sons in progress at Reading, Eng, and has proven
very successful thus far. The brid plants pro-
duce good yield Of tubers of excellent form and
quality. a5skl ,.ud 80 1ugt III,
The advisabiity of testing as foggy weather
signals sudden fashes-such as those of gunpow
der-has been suggested to the British lighthouse
authorities by Lord Rayleigh and Prof. Stokes,
who think the flashes might attract attention
where an equal fixed light might escape notice.
German experiments have shown that cast-iron
pillars remain nearly upright and sustain their
load in the hottest fire, while those of wrought
iron bed to such a degree as to be valueless as
supports. 81 l3srsa tea at q isg sesuu4
a journal devoted to matters pertaining to fish
and the fisheries-from scientific and not poll
teal point of VIEWS being established by the
National Fish Culture Association of Great
Britain. eair res
The beaver is reported by Prof. Collett, the
Norwegian zoologst, to have become extinct in
northern Norway, about 100 only being still alive
in the south. -.rss efe..lt4